Based on the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake, this four episode mini series was produced by the BBC. The Gormenghast series is a series of books written by Mervyn Peake centered around Castle Gormenghast and the character Titus Groan. Biography Mervyn Peake was born of British parents in Kuling ( Lushan) in Jiangxi Province of central China in 1911 only three months before the revolution A miniseries (also mini-series) in a serial Storytelling medium is a production which tells a story in a pre-planned limited number of episodes
Cast
| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Steerpike | Jonathan Rhys Meyers |
| Lady Gertrude | Celia Imrie |
| Lord Groan | Ian Richardson |
| Lady Fuchsia | Neve McIntosh |
| Flay | Christopher Lee |
| Swelter | Richard Griffiths |
| Titus (12 years) | Cameron Powrie |
| Titus (17 years) | Andrew N. Steerpike is a character in Mervyn Peake 's novels Titus Groan and Gormenghast. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (born Jonathan Michael Francis O’Keeffe; 27 July 1977) is an Irish Film and Television Actor Celia Diana Savile Imrie (born 15 July 1952 is an Olivier Award-winning English actress. Ian William Richardson CBE ( 7 April 1934 &ndash 9 February 2007) was a Scottish Actor best known for playing Neve McIntosh (born January 1, 1972) is a Scottish Actress. Born in Paisley, Neve McIntosh grew up in Edinburgh, where Flay is a character in the Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake. Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE, CStJ (born 27 May 1922 is a two-time Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated Saturn Award-winning English Actor Richard Griffiths OBE (born July 31, 1947) is an English Tony award -winning Actor who has appeared on stage, Titus Groan is the title character of the first book in the Gormenghast series, Titus Groan, and main character of the rest of the series ( Titus Groan is the title character of the first book in the Gormenghast series, Titus Groan, and main character of the rest of the series ( Robertson |
| Dr. Prunesquallor | John Sessions |
| Irma Prunesquallor | Fiona Shaw |
| Nannie Slagg | June Brown |
| Clarice Groan | Zoë Wanamaker |
| Cora Groan | Lynsey Baxter |
| Professor Bellgrove | Stephen Fry |
| Barquentine | Warren Mitchell |
| Doggit | Lewis Rose |
First broadcast shortly after Christmas in 2000, this BBC miniseries of the celebrated modernist fantasy by Mervyn Peake was designed for an early evening time-slot in much the same vein as the earlier adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia. John Sessions (born 11 January 1953) is a Scottish Actor and Comedian. Fiona Shaw, CBE (Hon (born 10 July 1958 is a leading Irish Actress who regularly appears in London theatre, although to international audiences June Muriel Brown, MBE (born 16 February 1927) is an English actress, best known for her role as Dot Cotton in the Lynsey Baxter (born on 7 May 1965 in London) is an English actress. Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957 is an English Humorist, Writer, Wit, Actor, Novelist, filmmaker This is about the English actor For the college basketball coach go to Warren Mitchell (basketball. Biography Mervyn Peake was born of British parents in Kuling ( Lushan) in Jiangxi Province of central China in 1911 only three months before the revolution Although Peake, a talented and visionary artist, has left numerous drawings concerning his work, the creators preferred a new approach that injected a good deal more colour and humour into what is, on the page, a very dark and exhausted world; a place of shadows, dust, rust and nettles.
The BBC conception was based on the idea that Peake's early life in China had influenced the creation of Gormenghast; thus, the castle in the series resembles the Forbidden City of Peking as well as the Holy City of Lhasa in Tibet. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Lhasa, ( in English l̥ʰásə or in Tibetan; Chinese: 拉萨 Pinyin: Lāsà sometimes spelled Lasa, is the administrative capital of the This idea has basic validity, particularly as regards the 'bright carvings' of the wood-working outer dwellers, but purists might consider the entire production rather lighter than the books, which author Anthony Burgess regarded as a great classic of the Twentieth century and an allegory of the two World Wars. Anthony Burgess (February 25 1917 — November 22 1993 was an English Novelist, Critic, Composer, Librettist, Poet A world war is a War affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations An atmosphere of fairy-tale, rather than Gothic expressionism, hangs over the whole production. Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an Emotional effect it is a subjective art form
Some observers have noted that there is also a Science Fiction element to the mini-series. Gormenghast appears to exist as the last human settlement on an Earth which has been otherwise deserted by man. It may exist in the future. Society is stratified as in Peake's novel, and many Science Fictional dystopias imagine a world in the grip of an Oriental despotism, such as that found in Gormenghast. Strange human powers, stranger branchings are hallmark of both the story and of the best mainstream Science Fiction.
See also
External links
- Homepage of the miniseries at PBS.org
- Homepage of the BBC mini-series
- Gormenghast at the Internet Movie Database